At the kind invitation of Eva Hazeltine, we visited Llanishen High School last summer, working with Yr 8 and 9 students on the More Able and Talented scheme. The result of this brief visit is the following ‘lytel book’ of the Life (and death) of St Thomas Becket, featuring 20 vibrant illustrations by the pupils of Llanishen. We had a great time introducing students to some of the weird and wonderful features of medieval manuscript culture – from two-dimensional, episodic art to not a few homicidal rabbits lurking in the margins of the pages. And we have been very impressed by the work on show here:
5163_19525 Retelling Tales 1 final
In assembling a coherent visual narrative of Becket’s life and death, we were only able to use a small selection of the images produced that day. The full range of images and worksheets are available here:
Thanks again for the invitation, and we look forward to returning soon.
Rob Gossedge
Cardiff Medieval and Early Modern Research Initiative 